3 
lower plumage at any time of the year. Specimens shot at all seasons are precisely similar. In 
spring their numbers rapidly increase; and from the middle of March they become distributed 
over the whole country, the higher as well as the lower grounds, while along with them appear 
many of our common species. In the higher grounds these perhaps predominate ; in the lower 
certainly the H. cahirica [H. savignii| is most numerous. I never could detect the two sorts 
interbreeding, though the nests and eggs are precisely similar.” In North-east Africa it is 
recorded by all the various authors on the ornithology of that country as common and resident. 
Captain Shelley writes (B. of Egypt, p. 121) that it is “resident and very abundant. It differs 
from Hirundo rustica in not being migratory ; and it keeps more exclusively to the neighbourhood 
of houses, usually selecting the inside of some native mud hut for its nest, which it begins to 
construct in February.” Von Heuglin states that it breeds from January to April in Egypt, 
where it is resident, and is not met with to the south of that country. It has been recorded by 
various authors from West Africa; but there appears to be considerable doubt as to whether the 
true Hirundo savignii ever occurs there. 
In its habits the present species does not differ from Hirundo rustica; and its mode of 
nidification likewise closely resembles that of the common Swallow. I do not possess its eggs; 
but Canon Tristram states (/. c.) that they and the nest are precisely similar to those of Hirundo 
rustica. In Palestine, he writes, “having no chimneys provided for them, rafters of outhouses, 
where such can be found, but especially ledges in caves, are the favourite nesting-places; and I 
took five nests attached to the little projecting stones under the vaulted roof of a well in constant 
use, about two feet from the ground, and built in a row. Convenient situations must have been 
scarce there (it was near Kedesh); for we had to stoop under the roof to draw water, and almost 
touched the nests with our heads as we withdrew.” 
The synonymy of the present species appears to have been not a little entangled. Mr. G. R. 
~ Gray (Gen. of Birds, i. p. 57) refers to it as Hirundo savignii, Leach; but I have failed to dis- 
cover if or where Leach ever described it under that title, and think that there must be some 
error on the part of Mr. Gray. Mr. Sharpe (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 305) calls it Hirundo riocouri, 
Savigny, stating that it was originally described by Savigny in 1813; but here appears also to be 
an error, as the description to which he refers under that date (Descr. de ? Egypte, p. 270) was 
not published until 1825, and the author was not Savigny, but Audouin, who undertook the 
letterpress after it was relinquished by Savigny. The plate on which this bird was figured by 
Savigny appears to have been issued about 1809; but it was not lettered, and no description was 
then published of the bird. The first published description seems to be that of Stephens (/. c.) 
in 1817; and this gentleman observed that as a figure of the bird only had been received without 
any descriptive letterpress, he considered it best to describe it, naming it after M. Savigny. 
The specimen figured, on the same Plate with Hirwndo rustica, is the one above described, 
and is in my collection. 
In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens :— 
AT5 
